posted on October 22, 2001 05:27:41 PM new
Thank you for all of your feedback to our recently announced Sales Manager Business Edition service and pricing revisions. This feedback has confirmed that the Business Edition software already answers several of your most requested needs and has provided valuable information that will allow us to continue developing the software to help you sell more effectively. Look for future announcements as new features become available.
We also realize that our announced pricing revisions did not take into account fully the broad array of selling styles of sellers, making Business Edition too costly for many, particularly sellers of higher priced goods.
We will therefore be offering four new pricing plans beginning November 1, 2001 designed to rectify that oversight. These Premium Selling Plans provide access to Business Edition and unlimited image hosting in addition to all other AuctionWatch services. With plans starting at just $12.95/month, sellers doing even more modest sales volume can now use the advanced features of Business Edition. Two Premium Selling Plans have no associated final value fee, making it more affordable for sellers of higher value goods. One of the new plans reduces the cost of the previously announced Business Plan from $49.95/month + 1.5% Final Value Fee to $29.95/month + 1.25% Final Value Fee. New sellers who have already selected the Business Plan will see an automatic cost decrease when these plans become effective on November 1.
We have not made any changes to the Standard Plan pricing. Additionally, for yearly Power Plan subscribers, your pricing remains unchanged through the duration of your yearly subscription. We are also offering discounts on one of our new Power Plans for current Power Plan sellers who want to use the new Business Edition service.
A summary of the four new Premium Selling Plans is provided in the table below. Complete details associated with these new Premium Selling Plans can be found here.
*New sellers who signed up at our prior rate of $49.95 plus 1.5% FVF will be converted to the Power Plan Variable Rate Package ($29.95 plus 1.25% FVF) on the effective date of the new pricing plans
**Sellers currently signed up for the previously offered yearly Power Plan will experience NO change in pricing prior to the end of their yearly agreement. At the end of the yearly agreement, Power Plan sellers will automatically convert to Standard Plan (no monthly fee). We will provide notification in advance of your yearly Power Plan expiration to ensure a smooth transition to a new Premium Selling Package.
***Sellers currently on the Power Plan (yearly subscription) who transition to Sales Manager Business Edition at the new Power Plan Flat Rate will have their monthly subscription fee of $39.95 waived for the duration of their existing yearly Power Plan subscription.
You can find more information and download Business Edition here.
Thank you for your continued support. And please continue to provide us feedback so we can continue to serve you better.
posted on October 22, 2001 07:33:57 PM new
Well, gee -- I didn't notice I was supposed to link to THIS thread before I posted to the OTHER thread, so I'll repeat it here:
I don't see any relationship between the 1-asterisk footnote and the 2-asterisk footnote to the chart above it. Do these match up to something?
And am I doing the math right? The difference between the Premium Flat Rate and the Power Flat Rate -- if both sellers list 10 auctions each day -- is only $41?
This is such a huge leap from the current Power Plan to which we subscribe, that I don't know if we'll be able to afford you. Your competitors are being very aggressive in their attempts to pick up our business, by the way.
Also -- am I correct in understanding that now ALL your plans will be attached to the Business Edition and will therefore not be compatible with Macintosh use? That will be the deal breaker for me, anyway.
posted on October 23, 2001 01:34:17 AM new
Well if my concerns are going to be met at some point, this "little" guy who plays big about 6 months out of the year, will gladly sign up for one of the 12.95/plan. I really like AuctionWatch & would gladly pay the minimum just to get free image hosting & what not.
My biggest beefs right now, are you don't support EBAY STORE LISTINGS
&
You don't support Ebay's FREE TITLE BAR photo feature... There's got to be a way to integrate that.
posted on October 23, 2001 06:27:19 AM new
Regardless of which plan I would choose it will be a minimum increase of over 200% on my current fees. All I use is image hosting and lauching. All of your other features are useless to me and are not used. A great number of users do the same thing. How about a plan for that. Wh should we pay for all the "bells and whistles" if we choose not to use them. How about a flat rate for image hosting and launching auctions only. I think that would please a great number of you users and would persuade some to stay. As it stand LOTS will be leaing and we are being approached by other services with better pricing.
posted on October 23, 2001 06:27:31 AM new
sunnyjo,
All of the premium plans are compatible with all AW services, including Business Edition, AM Pro, and Auction Manager online for listing and storefronts and CRM, etc.
richierich,
You will be able to switch plans fairly freely, with monthly subscriptions charged on a pro-rata basis if you switch between your billing dates (i.e. half at 12.95, half at 29.95). You can also move from subscription to no subscription (Standard Plan), though we would offer no refund in that case for the remainder of the subscription period.
jhf2662,
Thank you for your support. I need to get you an answer to your product questions from the team that does product priorities. I'll pass along your comments in this thread so they have them as well.
posted on October 23, 2001 07:24:53 AM new
i agree with Tomyou. I'm an international seller based in UK, I find myself using image hosting and the listing service/inventory only, I would like to use more but they do not offer the choices for someone not US based eg the Post Auction Tools just cause confusion due to lack of choices. I would love to see the postage options increased to some which are oft used by UK sellers but cannot see it happening due to low userbase.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:03:00 AM new
BRAVO!!! Mike & AW,
As a very high volume seller on eBay of about 4000 items per month for a total value of about $500,000.00 per month we really appreciate your listening to your users and addressing the fee schedule.
Under the first Business Plan announcement last month we would have seen our fees increase from about $220 per month to around $7500 per month. A very dramatic change, one so costly our business could not absorb it. We would have been forced to go elsewhere.
Under the new pricing structures, as I read it, our fees will be about $440 per month. While that is still a doubling of what we pay now, it is a much more reasonable and fair outcome. And we applaud your efforts to structure your fees to make it as even and fair as possible for everyone.
Now have you got that import utility for the Business Edition software in place yet so we can import our 450+ inventory items from the online Auction Manager to your new software? This is vitally important for us so we do not have to recreate all of these items in the new software. Please keep us up to date on this.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:43:25 AM new
Do any of the new plan (or Auction Watch Pro, for that matter) have the means to track the original cost of an item? I need this in order to work out my profits & taxes. I can't find a way to do this with Auction Watch Pro (which I am currently using), but might consider switching to one of these new plans if the software supported costing.
posted on October 23, 2001 01:35:48 PM new
The new plans are nice, and we would like to contract for one of them to facilitate the disposal of some of the inventory of two book stores we have acquired.
However, we are still waiting for AW's writtem confirmation and commitment to the updating of AMPro and BE to facilitate the eBay Checkout feature.
Is this going to happen, or not? Please, no waffling....a direct Yes or No will suffice to our decision.
posted on October 23, 2001 02:04:45 PM new
Mike, I'm a little lost on your response to my post ..... I'm not sure which question you were answering but the one for which I needed the answer was the compatability of any of the new plans with Macintosh users. I asked early on about that, before you announced the new plans, and was told that it was not Mac compatable.
Is it?
I won't be using any of the post management features, tried them once, got my first neg from a newbie who didn't follow directions, and found it too cumbersome for our system. I use AW to host images and launch auctions. Period.
posted on October 23, 2001 03:16:20 PM new
Please explain why you think your prices are such a great deal when I can get all the services you offer for $120/year somewhere else, when Auction Watch wants $480 MINIMUM per year? (for the service I would use)
The service I use (and I am a powerseller) offers unlimited image hosting, unlimited listings, they charge NO listing fees, they charge NO final value fees, and they also offer "power tools" and post-management programs.
It would cost me over $700 PER YEAR to use AuctionWatch. I now pay $120 PER YEAR and no other fees are involved.
$700+ vs. $120 - - I wouldn't even consider AuctionWatch!
I personally think the people who are making up these pricing plans should be ashamed of themselves.
posted on October 23, 2001 04:24:07 PM new
Clarifications, Please:
(1) Many posts above contain valid and important questions. Why haven't they been answered?
(2) Why is this thread being "hidden" and not on the main AM Message Board Menu? Is this AW's way of minimizing questions and responses from direct exposure so that users can only "discover" it from an unnecessary link?
posted on October 23, 2001 06:43:10 PM new
hdoasis,
Thanks for your frank feedback that helped guide these plans. It is very much appreciated as always. We should have the import functionality within the next two days. I'll send you an e-mail with some instructions when it is available.
sonsie,
Thanks for your feedback. Our online inventory system (available to you under all plans, including Standard Plan) enables you to track items by SKU and include your cost basis for them. Sales Manager Business Edition does not yet have that functionality, but we'll put it on the priority list for the next release, since we think it's a great idea.
wabbitt15,
Yes, we will be supporting eBay checkout and are actively working on a date for that release. Given the current requirements based upon user requests, it is about #4 on that list.
sunnyjo,
Sorry for the confusion in my last post. All of the online functions for image hosting and auction launching are available online and are therefore Mac compatible with pretty much any internet browser. All of our pricing plans provide access to these Mac-compatible services. Our client tools (AM Pro and Sales Manager Business Edition) are not created for the Mac given the prioritization of other features against the relative number of Macs (and the ability to run middleware on Macs to simulate the PC environment and the really low cost of PCs today). We hope you try our online services to see if they meet your image hosting and auction launching needs.
ExecutiveGirl,
I'm the person who created our pricing plans, so if you need to vent, I'll listen. I would feel better having the discussion after you have at least tried our auction management services and compared them to the service you are on. Since 1 in 10 auctions on eBay are from sellers who pay for our services to help them manage their sales more efficiently, I'm pretty comfortable and not a bit ashamed of our pricing. I know very well the costs associated with providing the suite of services we provide as well as the pricing of competitors. With our scale, we run leaner per auction than any of our independent competitors, none of whom have near the volume of auctions launched that we do. Our prices reflect what it takes to operate the current services and continue to develop features such as the ones requested in this feedback forum. We couldn't do that at $10/month for folks doing thousands of auctions/month. The math simply doesn't work. As many know, we were free for a while, but that didn't sustain our ability to provide quality services and support demanded by our sellers.
Additionally, the $120/year comparison doesn't appear to be apples to apples given the below per image fees associated with the competing service you mentioned (I'm unsure about your comment on "no other fees are involved" if image hosting is separately charged compared to our full suite of services, including image hosting (which is pretty core to the service)).
Their per auction image pricing:
10 images for $5 (50 cents/auction)
50 for $20 (40 cents/auction)
100 for $30 (30 cents/auction)
250 for $50 (25 cents/auction)
1000 for $150 (15 cents/auction)
2000 for $200 (10 cents/aution)
So we compare favorably at out 10-20 cents/auction cost, and our unlimited image hosting for $12.95/month is equivalent to fewer than 50 auctions at the competing service.
Your post on the message center of this competing service also clearly shows you understand the importance of quality services:
"ExecutiveGirl
Member
IS THERE NO END TO XXXXXXX'S PROBLEMS?????????? Again today, my pics are NOT coming up and I have auctions ending **RIGHT NOW**.
Does anyone know of a comparable company?? I am just about at my wits end with XXXXXXXX.
posted September 23, 2001 06:22 PM"
So I invite you to try our auction management services at your leisure or when your existing provider realizes they are unable to provide quality services and update their functionality at their rates with their low volume. If you have any questions after you try the services, please let us know.
intercepteur,
1. I apologize. These questions have not yet been answered since I have not yet had time to answer them. Simple as that. I spend a lot of time on these posts, since I know they are important to you and the other sellers reading them. I posted some responses at 6:30 this morning, and I'm posting more responses now. In between, I'm working on other projects that will help our supportive sellers continue to sell more efficiently. I will answer every question asked that has an answer up to the point that it gives information about future development that may enable a competitor to gain an understanding of our development paths that they can use to their advantage.
2. This thread isn't meant to be hidden. We link it directly from the eBay Outlook forum announcement. Feel free to bump the thread in that forum as well. I just wanted a consolidated thread for the discussion since it is easier for everyone to keep track of the discussion rather than following multiple threads on the topic. The "Feedback Forum" seemed like the best place to take and respond to Feedback.
It appears you have not yet evaluated our services. When you decide to try our services, please submit any questions you may have on pricing here, or ask more general questions in this forum. We'll answer them to the best of our ability.
Please feel free to continue to ask questions about the service and details on pricing. It's a bit harder for me to respond to sellers who have not yet even completed an auction using our services before making an assessment of the fairness of pricing.
Best,
Mike.
[ edited by meffle on Oct 23, 2001 10:45 PM ]
posted on October 23, 2001 06:48:40 PM new
PLEASE address my main concern on whether, AW is going to add EBAY STORES compatibility
& whether AMpro will also support the free title bar photos.
W/ x-mas coming, the stores look really attractive, since Ebay is extending the PROMO on them, I jumpt through a lot of hoops to get my STORES listings set up right now, if it was AMPRO compatible, I would be listing tons of store items
All that & a Bag of Chips Too!!
posted on October 23, 2001 07:09:12 PM new
jhf2662,
I am SO sorry I forgot to respond to your post. I apologize for the oversight. I sent an e-mail to our product marketing group to get an answer and didn't have a response on your two questions by the time I sent my last post (and folks were asking why I hadn't yet responded, so I couldn't wait). I should have mentioned that. If you are looking for a place to sell additional items this holiday, a very economical alternative may be an AW storefront. It's basically a bundled feature that doesn't have a transaction fee. Obviously, some of eBay's auction description limits are geared to drive you into their stores offering and associated transaction fees in return for the Stores link near your eBay ID. For our stores, eBay allows you to include a link to your AuctionWatch gallery of eBay items, which is one step away from fixed price sales at the AW storefront. If you are going to do your own promotion of fixed price items as well, it may be a good alternative. In any event, I will get you answers to both your questions by tomorrow. I appreciate your patience, and I apologize again for my oversight in the post above. Take care.
Thank you, yes I have an AW storefront & have my VERY own link to it in every one of my auctions. However I want to play all cards this coming Holiday Season, AW storefront won't be forgotten, but I need the EBAY STORES also.
posted on October 23, 2001 08:24:53 PM new
EG I use the same program that you do and I LOVE IT!
They are NOT perfect......but I don't know any that are!
I pay $120 a YEAR...THAT IS ALL!
Unlimited Image Hosting, Unlimited Auction Postings, and I do NOT pay any Listing or Final Value FEES! All that is included in the one time payment per year!
If they can do it..AW should be able to also!
Mike, why did you feel the need to post where EG lived?
What has that to do with your program?
Shame on you!
posted on October 23, 2001 09:42:40 PM new
Hello, I was wondering if you could give us an update on supporting Dutch auctions and combining multiple winning bids into one invoice for bidders - Is this supported in Sales manager business edition and when will it happen in AM pro - This is a biggie for us . Thanks Much
Ed
posted on October 23, 2001 10:45:16 PM new
I have been with auctionwatch for several years now. I have regular sales on ebay of $300,000 to $400,000 dollars. As of lately our sales have taken a 50% to 60% percent decline and things are getting uglier by the day. We have made ends meet around here and we have been through worse times then this. I buy and sell antiques 7 days a week and that's no joke. We travel all over the country and we do major shows up and down the east coast and some out west as well. I tried auction watch years ago when they were free and truely had major problems with them keeping my images hosted etc. I see from time to time now they are much like ebay and change things without any ideal of what the real world of selling is on our end. When I logged on a few weeks ago and saw the image upload bars go from around 15 down to 9 I hit the roof. About a week or so later I realized that AuctionWatch is changing their payment plans and I once again hit the roof. My fees will go from approximately $330 a year to well over $800 with the amount of items I list etc. I originally paid the $200 a year membership fee plus the .05 cent per listing fee because your service was easy, I understood it and some of my helpers could do the work as well. I am presently on the search for a replacment server and service as I do not even understand your new rate fees. With sales declining and profits getting thinner and thinner Auctionwatch now has an ideal to double any and all fees associated with their services?? I only use the image hosting service and your templates to load the auctions onto ebay, nothing else. Everything else you offer is "worthless" to me and I have no use for it what so ever. I year sales top a million dollars through three shops and 30 shows and ebay combined. I need your accounting services like I need a hole in my head. (or at least another one that is.........LOL). I don't know what else to say, I'm stumped and Im lookin for another service to correct the $500 or better that you are asking from me without any reasoning or upgrade in service (to me). If you come up with a plan for people who use your company for hosting and auction template use only maybe I'll listen but unitl then my search engine is burning up. I would like to see that number of people who jump off of Auctionwatch when their yearly service is up in March??? Better lay off the bonuses within your company until after the March madness hits!!
posted on October 23, 2001 10:56:37 PM new
ok4leather,
I will send you an e-mail in the morning related to Dutch auction support.
psalms139/ExecutiveGirl,
The location was publicly available in the post I simply copied and pasted from a web page. Nonetheless, I edited this out. I have also edited out the name of the competitor you mentioned instead of deleting the clearly promotional post. I hope you understand our reasons for that. I'm also sorry you do not feel the same value of our services others do. Nothing I can say in this forum will change that. I wish you the best of luck in your online and offline sales. Hopefully we'll see each other again as we launch additional features, some of which you may find worthwhile. If not, I understand your position.
posted on October 23, 2001 10:59:36 PM new
Could not edit ExecutiveGirl's post, so I had to delete. Here is the edited version:
posted on October 23, 2001 07:25:33 PM edit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Meffle -
Yes, they were having problems for about a week or so - and it was VERY frustrating at that time.
For your information, I **HAVE** used AuctionWatch before, and THEIR problems were even WORSE. Scheduling not working, auctions that won't sync, sometimes I even had batches of auctions that posted TWICE!! I then had to close all my auctions, and apply for credit through ebay.
I'm sorry, but there is absolutely, positively, NO FREAKING WAY I will pay you guys $700+ per year when I've been using someone else for several years with minimal problems for $600 LESS!
Your prices are OUTRAGEOUS, and there is no other way to put it.
And I'm not sure what you don't understand about the service I use that doesn't charge "any other fees". It's pretty simple. I pay them $120 per year, and they upload and host ALL of my images (unlimited quantity), I can post as many auctions as I want (no limits), they don't charge an image hosting fee, they don't charge a fee per auction, and they don't charge a final value fee. I guess you could say they are not greedy.
Charging a fee for your services is fine - and expected. But the OUTRAGEOUS fees of at least $700 per year?? (That's at LEAST what it would cost me). I don't even know how you can COMPARE $120 to $700 per year. Perhaps you should try out the other program and see how they work.
When competition gets tight, you don't raise your prices. Plain and simple. You will never survive.
PS - I also don't appreciate you posting where I live so I would appreciate you editing that part out of your above post. That is not public information.
[ edited by ExecutiveGirl on Oct 23, 2001 07:30 PM ]
posted on October 24, 2001 05:16:47 AM new
I'm curious why I can't say the name of the company I use on this board? The moderators on the other boards allow us to say the name of other companies as long as we don't provide a link or try to promote that company. I only stated the name once. One word.
Are you that afraid of the competition that you had to edit out just one word in my post?
Regardless, I will continue to use the other program for hundreds and hundreds of dollars less per year.
posted on October 24, 2001 06:11:42 AM new
I posted this previously in the ebay outlook forum. Next time you want responses posted someplace else, I would suggest you not say "please post responses to THIS thread" and not mean it!
Why can't you be a little more honest with your "General sales profile" column? I'm not easily swayed by your average sales price figures... but others could be easily taken in. Let's compare two of your programs for an example... the Premium Variable-rate vs. The Premium Flat rate. You state that you should use the variable rate instead of the flat rate if your items sell under $40.00. This calculation is FALSE!!! If you use the variable rate for items that average between $15.00 and higher... you are better off using the flat-rate! While you are charging different monthly fees for the power-plan, the same logic applies.
or your chart to be more mathematically sound advice, your columns should be changed as follows:
Premium Plan Variable Rate: Typical Average Selling price = Under $15.00.
Premium Plan Flat Rate: Typical Average Selling price= Over $15.00
Power Plan Variable Rate: Typical Average Selling Price=Under $8.00
Power Plan Flat-Rate: Typical Average Selling Price=Over $8.00
Now of course this doesn't take into account totally the difference in the monthly subscription costs.... BUT, at least it gets it closer to realistic information.PLEASE change the information in your chart to reflect the TRUE savings. Your chart now is misleading at best... and misrepresentation at worst. This is the second time I have noticed mathematically unsound statements posted in your pricing plans. Just as a curiousity... do you have any mathematicianscurrently working for you? Should I submit my resume?
posted on October 24, 2001 07:19:21 AM new
ExecutiveGirl,
I don't know any company that enables third parties to advertise or promote competitive products to their own. Does Shell have Exxon signs? Wal-Mart promoting K-Mart? Never. I'm new to this message center posting/moderating thing, and frankly it's a pretty tough job that can get one (me lately after reading your posts) pretty upset. We work hard here, and it's tough to have people who do not contribute at all to our ability to provide services, including this free message center, post inflamatory comments here. This is my last post on this discussion, so I can direct my attention to the 10s of thousands of users who do appreciate our services. And I have no fears whatsoever of the other company nor any reason to fear them.
eauctionmgnt,
Your math assumes a 100% sell-through, which is about twice the historical number, and more than twice the average in many categories, especially ones with typically low ASPs. I don't want to mislead anyone, but wanted to provide some guidance based upon general selling success. Everyone sells differently, which makes pricing and pricing guidance difficult. I would recommend everyone decide for themselves which plan is best by doing a quick spreadsheet that includes sell-through. Perhaps you can do some math consulting for sellers. We probably couldn't afford your services.
posted on October 24, 2001 07:32:42 AM newI don't know any company that enables third parties to advertise or promote competitive products to their own.
Like I said, I wasn't advertising. Simply stating what service I use. Wal-Mart may not advertise for Kmart, but they allow their customers to talk about Kmart inside their stores! Do you think they tell their customers "get out if you're going to mention Kmart!! How dare you!" LOL Please. You see, THAT is a company that is not afraid of the competition.
Also, I did not post any "inflamatory" posts. This thread was started to get our opinions about your services, correct? And I have given my opinions. Your prices are WAY too high. So is it that you only want opinions that say how wonderful your services are and what reasonable prices you have? If that was the case, you wouldn't have very many "opinions" here at all. Maybe if you actually listened to the customers you would get a lot more of them. The majority of the users here are telling you that your prices are WAY TOO HIGH! You feel the need to ignore those comments. So you go ahead and keep those outrageous prices. We are all running to your competitors.
Just wanted to pop in and say "thank you" for the attention that you're giving AW posters on this hotly debated subject.
Many of us old-timers (message center) see your responses as a breath of fresh air compared to the vacuum that greeted many of our previous suggestions and feedback.
As a long-time business person, I've learned (painfully at times) that one does not complain to others about a business or promote a competitor to that business within its doors....that's the quickest way to get shown the door in the B&M world.
Regarding the lack of Mac support...I run a machine shop business on Macs and can interface quite well with the realities of the Wintel world we operate in by running OrangePC cards in those computers which must interface with the Wintel world. Anything is possible if one puts their mind to it. Most of us die-hard Mac users live with the software limitations imposed on us and wouldn't have it any other way. Your explanation made perfect sense to me...
Although this subject will likely remain hotly debated, I think things have come a good distance since your name started appearing here recently....whatever decisions prompted that, I applaud them.
I hope that you'll remember, with this often-tough crowd, it's business and not anything personal towards you.
Pat
UBB flub
[ edited by camachinist on Oct 24, 2001 08:57 AM ]
posted on October 24, 2001 09:26:52 AM new
I have a idea for a service that I would love to pay for. Why not have a Showcase like Active does but pull items off some of the free auction sites too.
Showcase= Little Pictures of what's for sale.
I have items all over the place and would love to have a showcase that could show all the items I have for sale.
First company to offer such a service will get my MONEY every month.
posted on October 24, 2001 09:37:32 AM new
camachinist,
Thanks for your kind words. As much as I attempt to tell myself much of what you mentioned, it helps to read your comments as a reminder of why I and the rest of the team here work so hard. And while no doubt people in Wal-Mart talk about KMart, I doubt they would let anyone on the intercom to announce competitive prices for laundry detergent at the other store (probably a better analogy). Same reason you don't have promotional signs for the machine shop down the street. Thanks again (and to you rgrem for pointing out the flawed analogy).
.